Wednesday, December 28, 2011

No crack in a fortress can be accounted small

Baroque runs riot in the chapel of the Penitent Blacks (Chapelle des Pénitents Noirs) in Avignon, as seen in my photos. Dating from the 18th century, the chapel was built by the co-fraternity of the Black Penitents of Mercy who tended to the material and spiritual welfare of prisoners in the city. Recently renovated by Avignon city council, the chapel is now the home of a contemporary co-fraternity of the Black Penitents. This was formed in 1983 to "pray for the souls of Purgatory and to be guardians of the traditional Catholic liturgy". Posters and flyers from the Fraternité Saint Pie X are prominently displayed in the chapel, promoting among other events a retreat to study "The spirituality of Monsignor Lefebvre".

The Fraternité Saint Pie X (Society of Saint Pius X) was founded in 1970 by the right-wing cleric Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre in opposition to changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council and among its aims is the retention of the traditional Catholic Mass. The Society gained notoriety for sheltering French war criminal Paul Touvier for sixteen years and when Touvier was finally arrested by police in 1989 he was staying in a seminary run by Lefebvre's followers. A priest from the Society of Saint Pius X sat beside Touvier throughout the 1994 trial at which he was found guilty of crimes against humanity.

Paul Touvier had served under infamous Lyon Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie and the crimes for which he was convicted included involvement in the massacre of seven Jews at Rillieux-la-Pape in 1944 and in the murder of the human rights activist Victor Basch and his wife. In the 1890s Basch had led the defence of Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish French army captain falsely accused of treason. When Touvier died in 1996 a traditional Tridentine Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul was offered in St Nicolas du Chardonnet, the Society of St. Pius X's chapel in Paris.

After taking the header and footer photos in Avignon a few weeks ago I walked the short distance to the Lycée Theodore Aubanel where the plaque seen below is displayed.

3 comments:

Brian Moore's 1995 novel The Statement is a fictionalised account of how Paul Touvier was finally arrested in a Catholic seminary. It has just been re-published in a new paperback edition and is recommended - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Statement-Brian-Moore/dp/1408826178/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325089517&sr=1-2

Bob: When writing The Statement, I think Moore utilized Richard J. Golsan's Memory, the Holocaust, and French Justice: The Bousquet and Touvier Affairs (Hanover, N.H and London: University Press of New England, 1996) for research purposes. I had problems (on my end) posting this in OAOGP's comments section, so I thought I'd email it to you directly. Thanks for the post. Regards, Tim